EU Summit in Albania Focuses on Russia, Peace, Sanctions

European leaders who arrived in the Albanian capital today warned of new sanctions against Russia if it does not accept a ceasefire and if it does not take talks with Ukraine seriously to end the war, CE Report quotes Kosova Press.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said new sanctions on the Russian gas pipelines Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 will be imposed in response to President Vladimir Putin's ceasefire violations.

"Putin called for a ceasefire, no one followed. President Putin offered that Russia and Ukraine meet in Turkey. Zelensky was ready to meet, but Putin did not show up. So we are working on another package of sanctions, we will apply sanctions to Nord Stream 1 and 2. We want peace and we will exert pressure until Putin does this,” said Ursula Von der Leyen.

The European Union's chief diplomat, Kaja Kallas, also gave an interview to foreign media as she arrived at the premises where the European Political Summit will be held.

"We are thinking about the next package. We have sanctions that we have imposed on Russia, on energy. We have a roadmap that we proposed last week along with the sanctions because it is extremely important to continue this war. In this regard, we must be united because we clearly see that Russia does not want peace," she said.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for not taking the talks seriously. According to him, Putin does not want to take it seriously, so the union will decide on new sanctions against Russia.

"It is important to have absolute unity with allies. We must have a ceasefire. If we do not act together on sanctions, there will be no ceasefire. It is clear that Putin does not seriously want peace. I will discuss it with Zelensky here," he said.

Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa warned of new sanctions on Russia if Russia does not take the ceasefire issue seriously, TopChannel reports.

"Only Russia does not want peace in our region. If it does not change, we will have to agree on further sanctions, because only this will stop Russia. It is important to have this complete 30-day ceasefire. Otherwise, we have 17 other sanctions packages that have been agreed upon. At this summit we will also talk about illegal immigration and economic cooperation. We will use this meeting as a good platform," she said.